"Teresa!” Rocko called after her.

She spun on one foot but seemed anxious to carry on.

“You were right, I am not in any shape to be of use right now, and neither is Paige, but please take Nathan with you. You said we do this together, and Nathan will represent us.”

Teresa looked at Nathan who had stepped forward. A solid look of determination filled his eyes, his hand tightly gripped around the handle of the beautiful black sword at his side.

She smiled at Rocko and nodded, motioning for Nathan to follow.

Rocko nodded back at her, “Give ‘em hell guys.”

After a short walk, Teresa and Nathan reached the foot of a large hill, a cave mouth stood before them. The same strange markings that were etched into their blades, circled the mouth of the cave. Just inside, stairs echoed downwards out of sight. Flames flickered from glowing torches, the only lights illuminating the otherwise dark passage.

Nathan followed Teresa down the winding passage. Water dripped from somewhere, but it was too dark to tell where. After a long five minutes that seemed like an eternity, the passage opened up to a huge chamber. Straight ahead of them, in the center of the room, was the golden temple they had come for. A temple inside the cave. Its massive golden pillars glittering and bouncing the flickering light from the flames throughout the cave.

As they approached, Teresa suddenly noticed it. Blood splattered around the base of the temple and the floor.

That’s a lot of blood…” Nathan muttered, “But where are the bodies?”

Teresa crouched down, touching the blood before examining it closely, “Death with no bodies…” she thought for a moment, “Grim?”

“I wouldn’t be worried about Grim,” a voice bellowed from behind them.

They spun around to see Slash lunge at them. Teresa pushed Nathan aside and Slash’s swipe just missed the two of them. Nathan stumbled forward, and Slash collected the hilt of his Excalibur to Nathan’s head. He hit the floor unconscious, leaving Teresa to face off against the huge man alone.

“Hello Snake,” he said, grinning ear to ear.

Teresa drew her swords, “You couldn’t just leave after your first defeat could you Slash?”

“I will get a big bounty if I bring you in,” he said, ignoring her comment

“Still nothing but a hired thug I see,” Teresa replied, unimpressed by his huge body.

“Haha, I am a rich, hired thug!” he bellowed. “You’re not going to come at me with those sticks are you?” he said motioning towards her standard swords.

She shrugged and ran towards him in an awkward style, one sword out in front, the other sticking out sideways. Slash just stood there, moving slightly as the swords collided. The top half of one of Teresa’s rare swords clattered to the ground. Blood trickled down Slash’s arm, cut from the impact of the second sword.

“Well done,” Slash said unfazed, “But now you only have one and a half swords.”

“You’re very confident,” Teresa muttered, turning to face him.

“I used to be a hunter!” he stated simply, “That’s how I got this blade - I killed a man for it.”

Teresa’s eyes narrowed, “You killed a good man.”

“You say good, I say weak,” Slash said, mocking her.

Teresa looked over at Nathan. Please don’t wake up before this is over, I don’t want you to see this. She thought to herself.

Teresa threw her swords to the ground.

“What are you up to?” Slash said narrowing his eyes.

She threw her cloak to the floor revealing a tight black singlet with full length black cargo pants, two sickles were tucked neatly into the back of her belt connected by a short chain. Reaching around, she slowly brought them to her front, “You’re not the only one to acquire a blade after being a Hunter.”

“What do those do?” Slash narrowed his eyes.

“You will see soon enough,” Teresa promised.

Teresa had a sickle in each hand and let the chain droop between the two. She flicked them around once and caught the spinning sickle back in her hand, “Let’s do this thug!”

She ran at him, sickles in hand. Kano raised Excalibur, blocking her incoming assault with ease.

“Hmmmm… So they didn’t cut… So it is true, you are a Keeper!” he seemed slightly surprised at this turn of events.

Teresa attacked once more, the speed of her strikes caused Slash to be defensive, blocking each blow with surprising ease.

“I didn’t think you would be that easy,” Teresa said, changing her footing.

“I am just warming up!” Slash declared.

Teresa started swinging her blades around like nun-chucks, quickly walking towards Slash. He struggled to follow the blades, each following a random pattern, swiping quickly near his body. He jumped back, swinging aimlessly at the weapons. The first blade knocked Excalibur out of the way, and the second one spun around, piercing through the center of his left hand.

He let out a deep scream as his hand became purple, “What did you do to me you cow?!”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Teresa had a smile on her face now, “My blade is called Doku. It is the poison blade. I only hit your hand, so I would estimate you have about 3 minutes to live.”

Slash’s eyes widened. He ran to the side of the cavern, holding his sword over a flaming torch. It quickly became red hot and with a scream of pain he sliced his hand off, preventing the purple rash from spreading any further.

“Are you planning on cutting off all the body parts I puncture?” Teresa taunted, a satisfied smile on her face.

Slash ripped off his shirt, wrapping it around the wound. The loss of shirt just revealed more muscles, a perfectly chiseled torso, “You’re going to hurt for that Snake,” his voice becoming low and sinister, all amusement gone from his tone.

Excalibur began to glow, everything in the room changing shape, becoming sharp blade like objects.

“No one has ever survived my bladed room,” he said, eyes staring intently with a deathly gaze, “This ends now.”

Huge spikes gradually formed out of the walls, stones on the ground became sharp jacks. Teresa moved into a battle stance with her two sickles held in front of her.

He let out an evil laugh, “Now I see why they call you the snake. You look just like a viper ready to strike!”

Slash sliced the air in front of him and a blast flew towards Teresa. She changed the position of the sickles so the blades stopped the initial hit. The force however, knocked her backwards onto the ground. She landed on her side and pain shot up her arm, it felt like a million blades had just sliced into her.

“I’m going to take your head for my hand,” he laughed, sending out another pulse towards her.

Teresa shut her eyes in terror as the blinding white light hit.

Her eyes reopened.

She was still alive.

Teresa could see Nathan crouched next to her with two giant white wings extruding from his back, covering them both with an angelic shield. He had a gash on his head where Slash had hit, but a look of determination filled his eyes.

She looked down at his hand and noticed Akarui had a white glow to it.

“Nathan?” was all she could stutter.

“I am confident that Sophie is going to live, I won’t let you die either. Let’s fight this guy together.”

Teresa nodded, confidence renewing in her, “Alright, let’s stop him!”

Nathan stared at the sickles in her hands, “You can explain those later.”

Nathan suddenly let out a painful scream before collapsing to his knees.

“Nathan!” Teresa cried, placing an arm around him.

“I will be ok...” he replied, still looking at the ground.

Slash took this opportunity to make the first move, “Two against one, now anything’s fair!” he declared, running at them both.

Teresa jumped in front of Nathan and deflected Slash’s blade with Doku. Pushing it to the side she followed up with a kick to his gut. A piercing pain shot through her foot as she realized Slash had sharpened his body. She dropped abruptly to the ground, a large cut through the top of her foot.

Slash walked confidently over to Nathan, who was struggling to get to his feet, “I’m not sure what sort of trick you pulled before, but I’m not going to let you do it again,” he said, lifting his sword above his head.

“Not so fast!” Teresa said from behind him.

He quickly turned to see her standing, obviously favouring the left foot.

Slash let out a laugh, “What are you going to do? You can barely stand!”

She ignored him, swinging Doku around her head, releasing both sickles with force towards Slash. The blades swung quickly, seemingly pulling each other along as they flew. Raising Excalibur, Slash blocked the first sickle. The chain, pulling taut, caused the second sickle to wrap around quickly, slicing into Slash’s large back. He let out a scream, thrusting his hands around awkwardly, trying to remove the poisoned blade.

As he turned, Teresa could see the poison already spreading through his body.

He fell to one knee and the poison began to take hold. Weakened, he looked up at Teresa with a venomous glare, “You wi... You will never accomplish what you are trying to do. The Brotherhood… Is doomed…”

“With your death I am one step closer,” she spoke softly, a chilling tone filled her delicate voice.

Nathan was now on his feet and was staggering over, “You did it...” he said, still shaken from the battle.

She handed him a cloth, “Here, wrap Excalibur in this. We will take it with us. Don’t touch the handle.”

Nathan crouched down, picking up the giant sword. He took a look at Slash, the lifeless body covered in a purple rash from head to toe, “Doku the poison Blade?” he asked.

Teresa pulled her cloak back on, “My little secret,” she said, “I’m sorry Nathan, you were not meant to see these, no one knows about my blades. I… I am ashamed of them.”

“That would explain your ability to remove poison from people’s systems…” Nathan said, helping Teresa put her cloak back on.

Teresa nodded, “I guess it is about time that people know about Doku.” She lent on his shoulder and they limped out of the cave.

“Grim must have already gone,” Teresa said, taking a drink from her bottle as they exited the cave, “The lack of dead bodies is his trademark. I’m not sure where he will be heading now.”

They headed back to the group. A huge tree now stood where Sophie had lay. Its trunk rising high above any other tree. Lush leaves filled the sturdy branches.

“That is pretty weird,” Teresa muttered, examining the huge Oak.

“What does it mean?” Nathan asked hopefully.

Teresa looked thoughtful for a moment, “I don’t know Nathan. We will have to wait and see.”

The group stayed another night at the location. Teresa stayed awake staring aimlessly at Excalibur. I did it. I killed him Toby. She smiled grimly, unable to find any solitude in the fact that Slash was gone. Doesn’t bring you back though…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a green glow. Sophie’s tree was glowing like a beacon. Teresa slowly climbed to her feet and walked towards it. What the hell… She thought as she examined the base of the tree. A human imprint was etched into the trunk where Sophie had lay, it was about Sophie’s size, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Sophie?” Teresa called, in awe of the tranquility that surrounded her.

Teresa looked up and saw a figure sitting on a branch ten meters up, looking off into the distance. A familiar green cloak hung around her. The figure hummed a beautiful tune that stopped Teresa in her tracks, all she wanted to do was listen to the beautiful melody. “Sophie?” Teresa called once more, a little louder this time.

The figure stopped humming and turned to her. She was covered in a dark bark, it was hard to tell where the tree stopped and the she began, but Teresa could tell it was Sophie.

Teresa started to climb the tree, “Are you ok?”

Sophie looked at her with strange new eyes, “Never better. Do not come up, I will come down.”

Teresa jumped when Sophie appeared instantly next to her. “What the....” she muttered in surprise.

The bark was slowly peeling off her beautiful skin leaving an unblemished complexion. “The trees saved me,” Sophie smiled, picking up a small spider from the ground and placing it in the tree, “Nature’s song is so beautiful.”

“You… You had fatal wounds Sophie… How is this possible?” Teresa was shocked that the girl before her was actually Sophie.

“My blade allowed me to regenerate over time, so long as I am not dead. I just need nature around to absorb, so the jungle was the perfect place to nearly die.”

Her soft smile made Teresa laugh happily and she dove forward embracing the girl, “Thank goodness!”

“We need to get a move on Teresa, I felt an ominous presence heading towards Marco’s house. While I was regenerating I could feel everything around me. Even your poison blades. But this presence, it felt like death.” Sophie said, not an ounce of panic in her voice.

“That will be Grim… We do need to hurry, Jake and Marco are in extreme danger. Let’s pack up and go.” Teresa turned to the others, “Wake up! Sophie has informed me that one of the most dangerous Keepers is heading towards Jake and Marco. We have to go now!”

Nathan, Paige and Rocko slowly woke up.

As soon as Paige saw Sophie she ran and gave her a tight hug, “I thought you were dead! Don’t scare me like that!” She wiped a tear of joy away from her eye, “You idiot!”

Rocko was next to give her a hug, “I am glad you are ok. Teresa got him Soph, Slash is dead.”

Sophie gave him a reassuring smile, “I know.”

It was then Nathan’s turn, Sophie blushed a little as he embraced her, before relaxing into his arms, “I knew you were too strong to die like that. I mean, our adventures have only just begun,” He whispered into her ear.

She laughed, “It will take more than a fatal laceration to stop me. But we have to hurry, Jake is in danger.”

“She is right,” Teresa cut in, “Grab your things, and let’s go!”